Melody's New Year
by Salomedancing
Summary: Melody runs into a stranger with eyes like a snake and who seems to know her. Featuring Roberts!Master.
**AN: This story can be read as an one-shot, but is actually part of a series short fics where River Song meets the Master in various incarnations. For River Song this story is the first, the next one being Sliding Down the Razorblades of Life. For the Master this takes place after A Little Drink Between Friendsand before Passing Ships.**

In 1999, when most people thought Melody was ten, her adoptive parents surprised her with a holiday in Los Angeles to celebrate the new millennium. Melody didn't want to go. She wanted to spend New Year with Amy and Rory- they were currently having a big debate if the computers would break down or not in 2000. She and Amy thought they wouldn't, Rory was convinced they would and Melody wanted to see his face when they didn't. But both Amy and Rory thought she should go, so Melody reluctantly gave up on having a tantrum over it.

"I would jump on a chance to travel somewhere," Amy said. "I will never get out of this dump."

So Melody went to Los Angeles expecting a boring New Year on a boring restaurant with her well-meaning but boring adoptive parents. But before that she decided to do some sightseeing on her own. After all, Los Angeles was a big city with a lot of things to entertain a little girl who wasn't quite as young as she looked. Her time sensitivity picked up several curious disturbances all over the city and like a small bloodhound she went into pursuit of the most chaotic one. The pursuit took her into a dark alley and there she bumped smack into the centre of the chaos who was in the shape of a tall man in a leather jacket and sunglasses despite the sun being set.

He took hold of her, grasping her arm in a painfully hard grip.

Why are you following me, child?

He removed his glasses and Melody saw with a not completely unpleasant thrill of fear that his eyes were slitted like a snake's. He shifted, his body tensing, and she realised he was ready to kill her then and there. She grinned up at him and he relaxed a little, giving her a smile that was both unpleasant and attractive at the same time.

"So you can regenerate, how interesting. I should have guessed- who else but you to turn up at the oddest places."

"Of course I can," Melody said, not bothering to deny it. This was interesting, indeed. The snake-man seemed to know her, but she was certain she had never seen him before. A man from her future then, a future when she had another face. She cocked her head and studied him a bit more closely. There was a very strange discrepancy between the face of the man before her and what was looking at her with eyes from another world. They didn't fit, and she realised that the body was slowly falling apart as the mind was furiously clinging to life.

He still held her arm too hard. "Perhaps I should use you instead, then. It would be easier and your body would be able to sustain me."

"No one is using me for anything!"

He smiled his double sided smile again. "I recall. And you are too entangled in my timeline for it to work properly anyway"

He finally let go of her and took a step back. "Have you seen him yet?"

"Seen who?"

"The Doctor, of course. He is bumbling around here somewhere. Impossibly pretty this time- I'm sure he does it just to spite me." The snake-man shrugged. "No matter. And though it's always nice to see you, I don't really have time for reunions right now. So goodbye then, my dear, until you meet me again."

He turned and left, walking in long strides. Melody stared after him for a few moments, but then she ran after him and tugged at his sleeve.

"Wait! Who are you? And what do you want with the Doctor?"

He looked down on her with a decidedly ironic glint in his eyes. "As someone I know very well often says; spoilers."

With that infuriating and cryptic response he left and Melody watched him go. She considered following him, then she thought she would try to find the Doctor. He must be behind some of the less chaotic time disturbances and she ought to be able to find him quite easily. The snake-man was clearly up to no good, but the Doctor was not a stranger to hostile entities. And it was too early to meet him again. She had important things to do first, she wanted to grow up with Rory and Amy and make sure they got together. With a sigh she started back to the hotel. She would meet the Doctor again, there was no hurry- he was her future, after all.


End file.
